John Sheahan on talks with Rebels, Virginia, 1863

Description

Pvt. John P. Sheahan (1842-1894) described his conversations with Rebel soldiers in a letter to his parents in Dennysville in February 1863.
Sheahan, of the 1st Maine Cavalry, wrote that he had had a lot picket duty and conversed with Rebel soldiers, some of whom offered him a Southern newspaper. The soldiers tried to send the paper across the Potomac River so he could read them, but he never got the papers.
"The Rebels are sociable as you please," he wrote.